World AIDS Day 2015

Tuesday, December 1st is World AIDS Day. The global community recognizes the impact of HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost to the disease.

It’s 2015, the end date of both the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This will be an important opportunity to review progress and prepare for the final reporting towards these targets. See the progress report here.

Internationally, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has touched every continent and more than 30 years post discovery, there is no cure for the infection or a promising vaccine on the horizon.

HIV continues to be a major global public health issue. Since 2000, 38.1 million people have become infected with HIV and 25.3 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses.

In 2014, an estimated 36.9 million people were living with HIV (including 2.6 million children) – a global HIV prevalence of 0.8%. The vast majority of this number live in low- and middle- income countries. In the same year, 1.2 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses.

25.8 million people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 70% of the global total. Only 54% of all people living with HIV know that they have the virus.